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In a memo to its clients, Apple’s ad agency Omnicom recommends a halt to advertising on Twitter until certain guarantees about trust and safety can be made.
Twitter has had a tumultuous few days. Changes under new CEO Elon Musk have thrown verification into chaos, made it easy to impersonate brands and people, and more.
And now, another ad agency — one that represents Apple — is recommending that clients not spend any more money advertising on Twitter.
In a note seen by The Verge, Omnicom Media Group is telling its clients to “pause activity on Twitter in the short-term.” Specifically, the ad agency is concerned about not just impersonation but also layoffs in Twitter trust and safety teams, resignations of executives responsible for FTC compliance, and more.
“Evidence that the risk to our clients’ brand safety has risen sharply to a level most would find unacceptable,” the memo obtained on Friday reads. “We recommend pausing activity on Twitter in the short term until the platform can prove it has reintroduced safeguards to an acceptable level and has regained control of its environment.”
Omnicom has reportedly reached out to Twitter to have its concerns addressed. The report notes that Twitter has not been able to address the concerns, and it’s unclear if that’s because of a complete lack of response from the company or a breakdown of the Twitter chain of command responsible for those communications.
Advertisers have been exiting in some volume since the Musk takeover. Most automotive companies led the exit. Other companies that have ceased Twitter advertising include General Mills, Deutsche Bank, United Airlines, Air Canada, REI, and more.
Musk says that the departures are “trying to destroy free speech” and threatened a “thermonuclear name & shame” of advertisers that have stopped the flow of ad money to the company. It’s unclear why Musk thinks that Twitter is entitled to the advertising dollars since the companies are executing the free speech rights they are entitled to in pulling the ads.
AppleInsider wasn’t able to find Apple ads on Twitter in a brief check on Friday evening. The examination was not exhaustive, so that does not confirm that the ads have been withdrawn.
On Thursday evening, Twitter made the decision to activate the $8 Twitter Blue subscription that entitled purchasers to the same blue check mark that users that went through the verification sport. Overnight on Thursday into Friday, Twitter reinstated the “official” checkmark that it had previously launched and killed, and very shortly thereafter, disabled the ability to purchase Twitter Blue.
It’s unknown whether people who paid their $8 for the first month will revert to the old-style Twitter blue for their next billing period. Also not clear is why Twitter didn’t retain the blue checkmark for verified accounts and implement a different color or shape for the paid subscriptions.
Twitter Blue purchases were only available on the iPhone.
